Lessons in Contentment
by Cryptographic DeLurk
Summary: Shirley offers Chloe swimming lessons. Senel is the one that actually ends up doing the teaching. Chloe/Senel/Shirley.


**Lessons in Contentment**

by _Cryptographic DeLurk_

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"I wish I could do that."

"You know I can teach you?"

Chloe has to struggle not to look away when Shirley turns to her. She'd hoped Shirley wouldn't know what she had meant. She was watching Senel take a tumble off the boat into Raging Bay outside Oresoren Village. He'd recovered himself in a matter of seconds, flipping lazily through the water next to the otters. Moses had swan dived in after him. Norma lets out a whoop, and the Oresoren cheer for an exasperated Jay to jump in next.

Maybe there are only so many things watching something like that and sighing wistfully can mean. _I wish I could do that_. Or maybe Coolidge had simply told Shirley that she couldn't swim – they were certainly close enough to share too much. And even though Chloe liked Coolidge keeping it a secret for her, it's… getting easier, Chloe thinks. Not that it's easy to stand there feeling vulnerable, face burning as Shirley gently takes her hands and tilts her head in the blinding sunlight. Light reflects off Shirley's headband, in rosy pink and soft yellow. Chloe really can't see, and it's scary. But not as scary as when it was just her, alone, against the world – only letting Coolidge come close insofar as she could push him away again later.

"Not here," Shirley says. "The water's really cold here. And deep and choppy. But if you want to learn to swim, I can teach you. Maybe tomorrow, when we're back in the city."

"A-Alright," Chloe garbles out, after a pause. And plans are set in motion.

She leaves her rented room at the hospital in it the next day, with a towel wrapped over her shoulders, in shorts and sandals and the swimsuit she hastily bought the day before. She must have chosen well, because Elsa goes crimson when she sees it, and because of what Norma says when she catches Chloe out on the street as she walks up towards Falling Water.

"Your bod's as nice as ever, C." Norma waggles her eyebrows lasciviously, and runs her finger horizontally across Chloe's back, tracing one of red and navy lines in the suit's pattern.

"Cut it out, Norma." Chloe bats her hands away.

Norma raises her hands up in surrender. "Aww, you didn't tell me you were going swimming~"

"Shirley invited me," Chloe says, gripping her arm self-consciously. And she's worried for a second Norma's going to invite herself along. Just what she needs, another person to watch her flail around in the water like an idiot.

But- "Ah, I see," Norma says with artificial understanding. "A seduction attempt, huh? Then I'll stay out of your way today, heartbreaker~" Norma winks before she skips away.

Shirley is waiting for her at the base of the cliffs. Along with Coolidge, because it's never one of them without the other these days, is it? Except Chloe thinks she can forgive that.

Coolidge covers her back as they make the climb up Falling Water to Lumen Springs. And it's nice to have someone fighting at her back. Even if they're only fighting a flock of Peppit Chicks, it's also not really safe when they're wearing swimsuits instead of armour.

Though the real reason Coolidge is there soon makes itself apparent.

When they finally reach the spring, Chloe toes the water nervously, until Shirley swings around in front of her and pulls her in. Shirley flits away, and Chloe's already panicking, splashing as she sinks down into the water, unsure of what to look at or how to time her breaths, until Coolidge pulls her up by the arm.

"You ready?" Shirley asks. She flips up, and then down underwater. The water is clear enough that Chloe can see her dolphin kick underwater out to the centre of the pool where she finally resurfaces. She shimmies in her white and lilac swimsuit, and bobs at the surface of the water. "Okay?! Your turn! You try!" she shouts across the distance.

Coolidge is buoying her up, and Chloe feels absolutely petrified at his side. "H-How?!" she shouts back.

"Just feel the water!" Shirley says. "And try to copy what I did!"

Chloe pauses for a moment. "How?!" she repeats again.

"I'll handle it, Shirley!" Coolidge interrupts. "Why don't you enjoy the water while I catch Chloe up on the basics?"

Shirley pouts, but dives back underwater and swims off to the deeper end of the spring.

"Don't worry about Shirley for now," Collidge says to Chloe this time. "She was pretty much born knowing how to swim, so I'm not sure she understands that the rest of us actually had to learn."

He's talking about Shirley being Ferines, and himself and Chloe being Orerines, but before Chloe can reflect too much on the differences between them-

"We'll practice over there," Coolidge says, all business. "The water's shallow enough that you can just stand up if you get too scared."

"You just expect me to stand up and give up if I get scared?!" Chloe asks, trying to be offended.

"I mean, yeah," Coolidge says bluntly. "The way you're going to get less scared is learning you have the power to put an end to it… But Shirley and I are here with you anyhow. So if anything bad happens, we've got your back."

Chloe's not sure how to handle the rush of gratitude infringing on her scepticism, but she lets Senel lead her to the shallows. He stands and eases her down off her feet.

"Okay, first, you just have to get used to floating," he says. "It's not as hard as you think. If you just stay calm and hold your position, you'll float naturally… No really. Just relax a bit. Even if you pull yourself into a ball you won't sink."

"...Probably," Coolidge continues, muttering to himself in an undertone he probably hopes she won't bother paying attention to. "I mean, even though you're muscular you're probably buoyant enough... Might have to work twice as hard." He voice perks up. "But you always do, right Chloe?"

Chloe can't focus on what he's saying though. She can't even focus on Coolidge's hand on her calf, her forearm, as he stretches her out into streamline position. She's too busy trying to crane her back and keep her head above water.

"You're going to have to put your head down sometime," he says. And when Chloe tenses, and then all at once takes a huge gulp gulp of air, squeezes her eyes shut, and plunges her head underwater- "You'll give yourself stiches that way," he warns, readjusting the angle of her neck and torso. "Come on, breathe out your nose."

For a while, she's just motionless, with her eyes squeezed shut, wondering how she's going to breathe next time she needs it. But she's too proud to stand up, or break position. She wants to let her arms collapse from where they're held above her head, fingers laced together, and cling to Coolidge. Or maybe to Shirley, although she's too far out into the water to reach. But she's either can't or won't, so she holds herself in place until Coolidge tips her shoulder down, so she rotates on her side, and then further until her mouth clears the top of the water. She stays there a moment, until Coolidge rotates her back down.

This repeats for a while, until Chloe begins anticipating the pattern and rotating her side up out of the water herself. As her thoughts edge away from the immediate danger of suffocation. She thinks instead about how foolish she must look, like a helpless child. But Coolidge is professional – either oblivious to, or inconsiderate of, her embarrassment. It makes her feel better.

She didn't ever think she'd learn to swim. There had been so much to learn so quickly, about swordplay and eres and knighthood, about managing the Valens' estate. By the time she'd finally had time to think of swimming, it felt like an oversight too late to rectify. Perhaps it was something her parents had planned to teach her once (or maybe not, she'd never know) but there were so many things they'd never had time to teach her, and so much anger about that.

She breathes that out and lets it go. She can still learn, is learning right now. And maybe there are worse things in the world than needing Senel and Shirley to teach her.

Coolidge is showing her how to pinwheel her arms. And she opens her eyes under the water for the first time. It stings, but not too badly, and she follows the blurry form of Coolidge's red and grey trunks, up his tan chest. There's a scar, from where she'd stabbed him through, trying to sever her ties to the Legacy and the people here. Some type of feeling moves to clog her throat. Guilt... or sadness, maybe? But she presses it down with a bitter and cutting throb – if she had had to forgive Alcott, then Senel could stomach forgiving her. She breathes out into the water, and the thought leaves her entirely like so many bubbles.

They continue a while longer, until it's no longer midday and the water is no longer warm. Coolidge is standing in front of her, holding her hands as she practices kicking with alternate legs. Chloe is blushing as Shirley swims over. She swims differently than the way Coolidge is teaching _her_, Chloe notices. Shirley will dive down underwater and twist and undulate her whole body, propelling herself forward without ever seeming to disrupt the water around her. But Chloe guesses that's a more expert technique.

"So have you learned anything?" Shirley asks.

"I think so?" Chloe says, standing.

"I left you guys alone for a long time so..." Shirley's eyebrow quirks up. The relationship between this statement and her exceptions of Chloe's progress is left for everyone else to puzzle out.

"She did learn," Coolidge says more confidently. "We made a lot of progress for her first lesson." And then to Chloe. "I'm sure you can swim a bit by yourself. Just put everything we worked on together."

They sit on opposite sides of her. Coolidge up-bank, with his head's above the water. Shirley's under the water entirely, with her legs crossed against the smooth stone bottom of the spring. The ruffles of her swimsuit undulate like jellyfish tendrils.

Chloe slowly lowers herself down into the water, and kicks her feet up behind her. From streamline position, she starts the slow rhythm she's practised. She's forgotten how to breathe again, she's pretty sure that her arms aren't catching any water as she swipes them by her sides, and she's sinking slowly without Coolidge to buoy her up. But her legs are kicking and, snail's pace or not, she's moving forward in an approximation of the front crawl. She continues for about fifteen seconds, before she finally pulls herself into standing.

She's moved a couple feet away from where Coolidge and Shirley had sat around her.

"You did great!" Coolidge says. He claps and gives her a thumbs up.

Shirley seems less impressed, and trying to hide it. She claps unenthusiastically and then says weakly, "Well, we won't have any trouble catching up with her at least… For the Rite, I mean."

Chloe's knees buckle, her face turns puce, and she sputters magnificently as she sinks down under the water, and of course that's the only moment that day she begins drowning in earnest.

..

_Fin._


End file.
